1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording paper on which an image, such as letters, can be directly recorded by beam scanning. The invention further relates to a recording apparatus, such as a printer or copier, etc., for recording information on the recording paper.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to use a coloring agent having a predetermined color which disappears when a specific wavelength is made incident thereon as a copying toner. Namely, if the coloring agent is used as a copying toner, information recorded on a copying paper is erased when the copying paper receives a beam of specific wavelength incident thereon, thereby restoring the copying paper so that it may be reused. An article entitled "Trends" in "NIKKEI MECHANICAL" dated Jul. 22, 1991 discloses such a toner.
The known coloring agent is made of a mixture of IR820B which is a blue cyanine dye and ammonium salt of organic boron compound. When a wavelength of 820 nm (near-infrared radiation) is incident on the coloring agent, the blue color disappears, so that the coloring agent becomes transparent. It is assumed that this phenomenon occurs due to an irreversible reaction which occurs when the IR820B absorbs the wavelength of 820 nm in the presence of ammonium salt of organic boron compound, which functions as a catalyst.
However, the applicability of such a coloring agent has been limited to a copying toner to make copying papers reusable. Namely, the conventional concept of the application of the coloring agent is addressed only to reusable copying paper.
In a conventional laser printer, a laser beam is on-off modulated in accordance with printing data output from a computer to form a latent image on a photosensitive drum. The latent image is then transferred to the recording paper through a toner. This type of laser printer is accordingly complex.
Furthermore, in a conventional copying machine, an image is formed on a photosensitive drum by light reflected from an original document (manuscript, etc.) to be copied and the image is then transferred to the recording paper through a toner, again, resulting in a complex construction.